Gensokyo Railway Series 12 (More About Ichihiro the Tank Engine)
by Pergold
Summary: Ichihiro works hard on the Eientei branch line, but sometimes things happen to him. But then when everything seemed grim, he manages to pull through!
1. Prologue

Nitori was glad that the rail line was almost complete. Even parts of the station were being built. The Mayohiga was going to open on time anyway. Ever since Ahiru had his encounter with some youkai, signs had to be posted, warning everybody to not duel on the rails. The board didn't want any fatalities from trains running over youkai. Sometimes the Yakumo clan would come over and visit the work site.

Mayohiga had a large feral cat population, this was caused by Chen wanting to find a servant by collecting a bunch of cats. This did not work.

However this time, the Scarlet Controller had come.

"So this is the new line?" she asked.

"Yes. We're almost done building the track, after that is the yard and construction on the station has begun." said Nitori.

"Reimu's still upset about where Seija had gone."

Yukari had banished Seija to a place far from Gensokyo, some might say she still had ill feeling of the place she had sent Seija to. But she is out of Reimu's sight and no trouble has been caused.

"Did you start work on the new engine yet?"

"No. I'm too busy making sure that construction goes well, especially after I got rid of the last supervisor."

The Scarlet Controller left, leaving Nitori to finish her work on the line. She looked at a map, it had markings where things had been finished, like signal boxes and sections of track.

"Maybe I should get working on that engine." she thought to herself.


	2. Ichihiro Goes Fishing

On the times Ichihiro takes passengers to the artificial beach built on the Sanzu River, he liked seeing various youkai fishing by the side of the river. He always wants to stay and watch.

"No, we can't stay here. What would the passengers think?" his driver would say.

"I want to go fishing!" Ichihiro would tell the other engines.

"Engines don't go fishing!" the other engines would say.

One day however, when Ichihiro got to the station, he got a surprise.

"Out of order?!" said Ichihiro.

"Looks like we can't use the water tower here." his driver replied.

"Where are we going to get water?"

"We'll travel up the line a little bit, and we'll get water from the river."

Ichihiro stopped where the line follows the Sanzu River the closest. His driver found a bucket and some rope, the firewoman and the driver made a game of who could throw the bucket the furthest. The bucket had several holes in it and they had to work quickly to full Ichihiro's tanks. Eventually, Ichihiro had enough water to continue.

But it wasn't long before Ichihiro felt a pain in his boiler.

"Ouch!" he said.

The train traveled on slightly more until steam rushed out of Ichihiro's safety valve.

"I feel like I'm going to burst! I feel like I'm going to burst!"

"You don't need to tell us twice." said the driver.

Ichihiro got the train to the station and he had to be put on a siding, far enough away from the station. The driver phoned Nitori and the Scarlet Controller, whilst the firewoman found signs that said "DANGER KEEP AWAY".

Ichihiro's fire had been dampened and was now out. The Scarlet Controller and Nitori arrived.

"What do you need me for?" the Scarlet Controller asked.

"Its Ichihiro, sir." answered the driver.

"I'll see what the matter is." Nitori said.

Ichihiro said that he felt a pain in his boiler. Nitori found a ladder and climbed onto the water tank.

"Your feed pipe's probably blocked."

She looked into his water tank and she was surprised!

"Remilia. Can you come here?"

"I'll look at it." said Sakuya Izayoi, she handed the parasol to the driver to keep Remilia out of the sun.

Sakuya looked in and was shocked as well.

"What is it Sakuya." asked the Scarlet Controller.

"There's fish in there, mistress!" Sakuya exclaimed.

"FISH?!" said Ichihiro.

"We must of got fish in our buckets when we filled his water tank by the Sanzu." the driver explained.

The firewoman, driver, and Nitori all took turns fishing in Ichihiro's water tank. Sakuya helped to make sashimi out of the fish that were captured.

"Now have you learned your lesson?" asked the Scarlet Controller.

"Yes. I understand why engines don't go fishing." said Ichihiro.

"It's too uncomfortable."

"Good. Now run along now." the Scarlet Controller said.

Now he knows why engines don't fish.


	3. The Runaway

One day, Ichihiro felt ill and had to be taken to the works, Shiro pushed Ichihiro into the works and the Scarlet Controller had to find an engine to look after his branch line.

"Ahiru, can you take over Ichihiro's branch line while he's in the works?" she asked.

"Sure, I'll do it."

Ahiru pulled Ani and Kuraraberu, he was gentle with them and they were pleased with the JR Western engine. He befriended the Eientei staff as they helped whatever sick or injured passengers out of the train.

"He was so nice when he pulled us." said Ani.

"Ahiru's such a pleasant engine!" mentioned Kuraraberu.

Ichihiro wasn't jealous, he was just glad to be back to work. However, the works had left his handbrake stiff. He'd feel the brake come hard on even if they weren't. This made him to overrun the platform, soon his firewoman managed to learn to compensate for the handbrake. But one day, his firewoman fell ill and a relief worker had to come, it was a good thing they were at the big station at the time.

Ichihiro waited for Kenta's train at the big station, his crew joined with the guard on the platform and they were having a nice conversation when Ichihiro started to move!

"What's going on? I'm moving without my driver! HELP!" he cried out.

Ichihiro couldn't whistle as his crew were still on the platform, before his crew could do anything, they were stranded out on the trainless platform.

"Your moving away! Can't you stop?" asked Ani.

"I can't! I have no driver!"

With plenty of steam, Ichihiro ran down the line. Soon word traveled along the signal boxes that there was a runaway engine. Marisa Kirisame was joined by Nitori to catch Ichihiro.

"There he is!" pointed Nitori.

"We'll catch him by Eientei!"

"That's where we'll go, _da ze_." said Marisa.

When Ichihiro got to the Eientei station, he was tired and didn't have much steam left. Nitori was on the platform waiting for the slowly approaching train. Ichihiro was going slowly enough for her to jump into his cab and apply the brakes, finally stopping Ichihiro.

The kappa and engine were relieved.

"Thank you for stopping me." said Ichihiro.

"No need to thank me, Marisa helped me stop you."

"Its fine. I'm only repaying my debt. Even if my butt stopped hurting." said Marisa.

"I hope this never happens again." said Nitori.

Wearily, Ichihiro agreed with her.


	4. Down the Mine

One day, Ichihiro was waiting at the station when Hiroto arrived, he was pulling a train of freight trucks.

"Say, what's that smell?" asked Ichihiro.

"What smell?" said Ani.

"Its a funny kind of smell."

"Why are you smelling a funny smell?" asked Kuraraberu.

"I think that smell...is dirty ditch water!" Ichihiro finally said.

"You little!" Ichihiro left before Hiroto had a chance to finish his sentence.

"You shouldn't say things like that!" said Ani.

"So? I thought it was clever, its your fault for playing into my joke."

Ani and Kuraraberu were speechless, they didn't know what to say. They didn't know if they should blame themselves for playing into Ichihiro's joke or scold Ichihiro for being rude. They were still in shock when Ichihiro left them to go fetch some trucks by the ore mines.

Onis digging for Hihi'irokane and other metals, dug large tunnels beneath the ground. The roofs were strong enough to hold up trucks but not the weight of engines. There was a board that said "DANGER! ENGINES MUST NOT PASS THIS BOARD!". Ichihiro had tried several times to pass the board.

"If Kiyoshi can do it. So can I!" Ichihiro always said beneath his breath when he tried.

However, this time, he came up with a plan. When his firewoman left to change the points, Ichihiro bumped some trucks so hard that his driver fell off the footplate.

"Look out!" said his driver.

But it was too late, he passed the board and within meters he ran over a tunnel and it collapsed, putting Ichihiro into a hole. It wasn't long before the Scarlet Controller arrived.

"Your a naughty engine, Ichihiro. Didn't you know what happened to Kiyoshi when _he_ passed a board like that?" she said.

Ichihiro started to cry.

"Well, a crane would be too heavy...Yuugi is busy, I know! Hiroto could pull you out!" said the Scarlet Controller.

But Ichihiro didn't want to see Hiroto just yet.

"Down the mine is he? Ha ha! What a joke!" laughed Hiroto as he went to get Ichihiro out of the literal hole he had made himself.

Soon Hiroto was at the mines.

"Hello little Ichihiro, we'll have out in a couple of puffs!" he called out.

A winch with strong cables were attached to Hiroto's front buffer beam, the end of the cable was fastened to Ichihiro's back coupling.

"Are you ready?" asked the Scarlet Controller.

"Heave!"

Hiroto pulled fiercely trying to tow Ichihiro out of the hole, it was much harder than anyone had thought, but soon Ichihiro was freed.

"I'm sorry about making that cheeky joke about you." said Ichihiro.

"That's alright, you made me laugh! I was in disgrace." said Hiroto.

"So I'm I."

"Shall we form an alliance of some sort?"

"Sure!"

"Good, that's settled."

Buffer to buffer, the allies went home.


	5. EIENTEI

Ichihro works as the engine in charge of bringing passengers to a place called Eientei. The Eientei branch line was given to him after he helped to rescue Akemi. This means that the sick and injured usually ride on his trains. Some festivals are held there during the year, such as the annual moon festival, which attract the more healthier passengers.

Ichihiro was at the big station one day, when he heard a distant boom. Within minutes, people were brought to the platform on stretchers and whatever wooden boards they could find. A careless magician had been mixing potions in the human village when she accidentally caused a chemical explosion. The Human Village yardmaster ran to Ichihiro.

"Quick! Arrange some coaches for the emergency train to Eientei! HURRY!" she said in a panic.

Soon, Ichihiro collected Ani and Kuraraberu but the train became so full that he had to get more coaches. Once the train was all set, he ran back to the front and pulled the heavy train.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Ichihiro cried.

"We're trying! We're trying!" said Ani and Kuraraberu.

Soon he made it to Eientei, Eirin and Reisen tried their best to get the wounded off the train. A good amount of them had irritated eyes and blisters on their skin.

"Chemical burns." said Eirin to Reisen.

Ichihiro took the empty train back to the Human Village to pick up more wounded. Meanwhile Eirin and Reisen were dealing with the huge influx of patients.

"I need more analgesic!" Eirin said.

Reisen and some other moon rabbits were working hard to care for them.

"What caused this?" Eirin asked.

"Some magician made a bad potion, why?" said Reisen.

"What was in that? Did you test anything?"

"Yes. The tests say its a sulfur poisoning."

The magician had accidentally made a kind of gas known to the outside world as "mustard gas". The effects of mustard gas were adverse, it caused chemical burns, created huge blisters, and even reduces white blood cells. Eirin had to create a medicine to treat these effects, but she had to work quickly.

Ichihiro brought a second train of patients in, they weren't as many, but they had worse symptoms. A moon rabbit named Tewi Inaba, yelled out to announce that more had come.

"EIRIN! INCOMING CASUALTIES!" she yelled as Ichihiro stopped at the station.

Ichihiro felt sick to his boiler when he saw how bad the humans were affected.

Eirin had finished the first batch of medicine for the paitents just as the last of the second round were brought in. Kaguya Houraisan, who was usually lazy and played around with Fujiwara no Mokou. Had to play nurse with the victims. She helped whilst Eirin had to conduct ersatz surgery on one of the patients.

Ichihiro had brought in a third train of patients, luckily some volunteers had come, one of them was a crossdresser, another was a local snob, and another has good at outside world technology and was nicknamed "Radar".

The volunteers worked with Eirin on the immense amount of patients. Ichihiro soon brought in a fourth train, he was tired and panted when he braked at the platform.

"This one's not badly effected, but he has some debris in body." said one of the volunteers.

"We need to operate quickly." said another.

Eirin had to watch over them as they dug out the bits of broken glass and splintered wood from the explosion. The snobby volunteer luckily had the most medical experience.

The patients that were finally cured were put in another room as a makeshift post-op area. There, Kaguya and some of the volunteers watched over them.

On Ichihiro's fifth train, the Scarlet Controller's head maid, Sakuya Izayoi, brought in some blood from her mistress' inventory.

"Good. We needed this, thanks." said Eirin, wearily.

The constant operating and trains went into the evening and the trains didn't slow until midnight, when the last of the injured were admitted. Ichihiro didn't have the energy to go back, his wheels ached and he felt like his coupling rods would fall off. He backed into a siding to rest.

For Eirin, the night didn't end. She worked tirelessly into the late hours of the night, only stopping to drink tea to keep herself awake. The patients were slowly migrating to post-op and she was glad when the worst was over the next morning. She was tired and badly needed rest, but she still had to direct the volunteers on what to do.

That same morning, Ichihiro brought the coaches back to the big station at the Human Village, were he rested some more. He stayed asleep until he was awoken by the not only the Scarlet Controller, even the guardian of the Human Village, Keine Kamishirasawa, came to see him.

"Well done!" said the Scarlet Controller.

"Not only have you worked your best in the hard of times, but also prevented a great tragedy!"

"Thanks sir." yawned Ichihiro.

"You have saved a great deal of humans from what I heard. You and Eirin are a credit to the village!" said Keine.

As soon as the magician's mess was cleaned up and the last of the mustard gas was washed away. A big celebration was held with Ichihiro and Eirin held as the guests of honor.

"Your a honorably useful engine!" said Keine.

"Thanks to you and Eirin."

"Don't thank me." said Eirin.

"I was doing what I do best, besides. Those volunteers that came really helped me a lot."

Eirin and Keine celebrated and Ichihiro happily blew his whistle.


	6. Epilogue

"What a week!" said Nitori.

Nitori and some kappas had worked hard to make equipment to clean the Human Village of the mustard gas that some magician had made.

"At least we made headlines." said the Scarlet Controller, she was holding a copy of the Bunbunmaru Newspaper.

"This will mean that we'll have to ban some chemicals in Mayohiga."

"How about we made the magicians that would live there to pay something."

"Like a license to do what they do?"

"Yes. Like that."

The two soon went back to planing the opening of the new line. A special will be pulled, bringing the first settlers into the village, followed by numerous freight trains.

The Mayohiga extension was nearly complete, soon they could finally open up the line to the public. They will also have to start work on the new engine. Nitori decided it would be a surprise, you'll have to wait and see who it is.


End file.
